- 7 minutes to read

Business Process Model (BPM)

New .7.x

Get started now: How to Add or manage BPM user guide.

A Business Process Model (BPM) in Nodinite is a swimlane drawing of a business process: Domains as rows, process steps as columns, and the Services (or sub-processes) that do the work in the cells. Because the Services are the same Repository Model artifacts your integrations log against, Nodinite can plot the logged events of one business transaction, such as one order, onto the drawing and show which step it reached and which one failed.

  • ✅ Model the process once, in business terms, with the BPM Designer
  • ✅ Search one order from the BPM and see its steps light up in their status color, with BPM Log Search
  • ✅ See the health of the systems behind each step, and run Remote Actions where your role allows
  • ✅ Jump from a failed step to the order in your ERP or portal with Search Field Links, which open another page with the value filled in
  • ✅ Model after the fact: the BPM uses events you already log, so you can draw it after go-live, and Nodinite matches which BPMs can show each interchange

The Example Used Throughout: Order-to-Cash

The BPM pages use the Order-to-Cash demo: seven steps across four Domains (Sales, Planning, Logistics, Finance), from Order Received to Order Invoiced. The demo ships a PowerShell script that logs about 1,090 events for 100 orders through the Log API, so you can reproduce every screenshot here in your own environment.

BPM Log Search showing one Order-to-Cash order that failed at Confirmation Sent (7.11)
One order plotted on the Order-to-Cash BPM: Order Received and Order Entry succeeded, Confirmation Sent failed (red), and the later steps have no events yet.

Understanding How a BPM Shows a Transaction

A BPM doesn't read business data by itself. Three pieces of configuration you control decide what it shows:

flowchart LR LE[fa:fa-bolt Log Event
Endpoint · Message Type
Payload · Context] --> SVC[fa:fa-gear Service
via Transport Contract] SVC --> STEP[fa:fa-arrow-progress BPM step
colored by Log Status Code] LE --> SF[fa:fa-magnifying-glass Search Field
e.g. Order Number] SF --> LV[fa:fa-hard-drive Log View
search and group by] LV --> STEP style LE fill:#2678BD style SVC fill:#3F827B style SF fill:#E47528 style LV fill:#E47528 style STEP fill:#93d16d

Blue: what your integrations log. Teal: the Repository binding. Orange: search configuration an administrator sets up. Green: what the BPM displays.

Piece What it decides Who sets it up
Services in the BPM cells Which step a logged event belongs to. An event belongs to a Service through the Service's Transport Contracts (Endpoint and Message Type). The O2C demo creates these from Repository Binding in the event's context. Administrator, or automatically from Repository Binding
Search Fields What users can search on, such as Order Number. An administrator defines each Search Field and its Search Field Expressions, which extract the value from the payload, from a context property, or from a Log Event field (with the Formula field() function). Nothing is extracted unless a Search Field Expression is configured for the event's Message Type. Administrator
The Log View Which events you search, and how they're grouped into one transaction. In the O2C demo, events are grouped by Application interchange id, so the 3–7 events of one order form one group. Administrator
Log Status Codes The step color: success, warning, or error, as logged. Your logging code or Logging Agent

If an expected step stays gray, check these in order: was the event logged, is its Endpoint and Message Type bound to the Service in that cell, and does the Log View include it.

Two Ways to See Transactions on a BPM

BPM Log Search New 7.11 Grouped Log View
Start from The BPM, in the BPM Overview A Log View
BPMs shown Only this BPM Every BPM your role can see that matches the events
Log Views The ones associated with the BPM, or any your role can use if none are associated The one you opened
Best for "How far did order 10010 get?" Browsing many transactions across processes

To limit which Log Views a BPM searches, and how to design those Log Views, see Log Views for BPM search.

Features

Feature What you get Page
BPM Designer Swimlane editor; each Service shape takes the worst Resource state; drag and drop Domains and steps; New 7.10 open the BPM as a Mapify graph or a Mermaid diagram What is the BPM Designer
End-to-end tracking How events, Search Fields, and Log Views come together on a BPM End-to-End Process Tracking
Integrated Monitoring Resource state behind each Service, and the same Remote Actions as in Monitor Views, by role Integrated Monitoring
Hierarchical BPMs New 7.3 Sub-processes in cells; open the parent or a sub-process from a search result Hierarchical BPMs
Custom Metadata New 7.2 Owner, SLA, and compliance fields on BPMs and Domains Custom Metadata Support

BPM Designer with the Order-to-Cash swimlanes (7.11)
The BPM Designer: Domains as rows, steps as columns, Services and sub-processes in the cells.

Scenarios

Each scenario tells one business outcome with the Order-to-Cash demo:

Questions are answered in the BPM FAQ.

Licensing

BPM requires the BPM license, which includes the BPM Designer, the BPM Viewer, and Domains for swimlanes. If your Nodinite instance doesn't have the BPM license, BPMs aren't shown. Domains are shared Repository artifacts that C4 Diagrams also use when Mapify is licensed. See License Options and Feature Matrix for the full comparison.

Set Up Your First BPM

  1. Log events with a Message Type on each, through a Logging Agent or the Log API. The O2C demo script does this for you.
  2. Bind events to Services in the Repository, by hand or with Repository Binding; place each Service in a BPM cell with BPM Binding.
  3. Create Domains for the swimlanes, for example Sales, Planning, Logistics, Finance.
  4. Draw the BPM: add steps and place Services in cells; see Add or manage BPM.
  5. Create Search Fields for the values users search on, with Search Field Expressions per Message Type.
  6. Create a Log View that groups by your transaction key, and associate it with the BPM.
  7. Search from the BPM; see Search log events from a BPM.

Common Questions

All questions: BPM FAQ.

Next Steps